Word study
Rubble
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “rubble”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “rubble” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- גַּל galheap, wave, billowtranslated this way 4 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H1530Noun · Translated: waves 13, mound 8, heap of rubble 3, pile 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Job 15:28 he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become rubble.
Isaiah 25:2 Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
- עִי îruin, heap of ruinstranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5856Noun · Translated: heap of rubble 3, ruined man 1, rubble 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Psalm 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
Jeremiah 26:18 “Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’
- נְוָלוּ nevâlûrefuse-heaptranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H5122Noun · Translated: rubble 2, pile of rubble 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezra 6:11 I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.
Daniel 2:5 The king replied to the astrologers, “My word is final: If you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut into pieces and your houses will be reduced to rubble.
- חׇרְבָּה chorbâhwaste, desolation, ruintranslated this way 2 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H2723Noun · Translated: ruins 19, ruin 5, wasteland 3, desolation 3Full study and all 42 verses →
Leviticus 26:31 I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.
Jeremiah 22:5 But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”
- עֶלְיוֹן elyônhightranslated this way 2 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s H5945Adjective · Translated: Most High 31, Upper 15, heap of rubble 2, highest 2Full study and all 52 verses →
1 Kings 9:8 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
2 Chronicles 7:21 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
- נָצָה nâtsâhstruggletranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5327Verb · Translated: fighting 4, rebelled 2, rubble 2Full study and all 13 verses →
2 Kings 19:25 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.
Isaiah 37:26 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.
- עָפָר âphârdry earth, dusttranslated this way 2 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H6083Noun · Translated: dust 73, soil 6, like dust 5, like the dust 3Full study and all 103 verses →
Nehemiah 4:2 before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
Nehemiah 4:10 Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.